


Sweet Child O' Mine

by LunaWolfe



Series: Rilei Parker Series [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21965065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaWolfe/pseuds/LunaWolfe
Summary: She's the baby of the family. She's the one holding them together. But who's holding her together.
Series: Rilei Parker Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581229
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Basically a retelling of the early part of the series from a teenage girl's point of view.

“John, please, you have to take her,” the tearful woman begs, thrusting the baby into John Winchester’s arms.

“Leah, I can’t take your baby. I have two of my own,” John protests, trying to place the baby back in her mother’s arms.

“John. They’re going to come after me. I can’t protect her. Please.” John looks down at the tiny pink baby in his arms. She has a small tuft of copper hair on the top of her head and big chocolate eyes that looked up at him curiously. He sighs.

“Leah, I’ll keep her long enough for you to get somewhere safe for the both of you. Then, you have to take her back. I can’t raise her and the boys. I just ain’t got it in me.” The young woman nods placing the diaper bag in John’s hands, kissing the top of the baby’s head, and walking away, glancing back every few seconds until she reaches her car. John is left standing in the twilight, the headlights of the Impala glaring in the background, two boys sleeping in the back, and a little girl blinking up at him.

18 years later

“Dammit, Rilei! What were you thinking?!” Dean hisses at the young girl in front of him.

“Dean, I obviously didn’t mean to,” Rilei Parker complains at the elder hunter. She hisses as Dean presses the alcohol-soaked rag to her torn calf.

“I told you to stay in the car.”

“Sammy isn’t here. John isn’t here. You needed backup. I’m the only one left to do that. So, I followed you in. look, it’s not even that bad.”

“You need stitches. Hold still.” Dean is brokering no arguments. Rilei is as much his responsibility as Sam is, and he let her get hurt. At least Sam is safe at Stanford. But Rilei is still here with him. And John has been gone for longer than Dean thinks is necessary. Plus, he’s not answering his phone. And Dean is worried.

Dean’s been in Sam’s apartment for too long. And Rilei thinks she should go in too. But Dean told her to stay, and after yesterday, she doesn’t want to piss him off anymore. Finally, the two brothers emerge. Smiling, Rilei hops out of the car. “Sam!” she chirps, jumping into his arms. Sam catches her with an “oof” and hugs her tightly.

“Hey, Ri. I missed you too,” he chuckles.

“You better have. What took you guys so long?” Just then, a blonde woman comes to the door. Rilei frowns. “Who’s that?”

“Oh,” Sam says, putting Rilei back on her feet. “Jess, this is Rilei. Ri, this is Jess, my girlfriend. Ri is the girl I was telling you about. The one that my dad took in,” Sam explains. Rilei looks down at the ground.

“Hi,’ she says quietly to the other girl, before heading to help Dean load Sam’s bag.

“He didn’t mean it like that,” Dean soothes, placing a hand on Rilei’s shoulder.

“It’s fine, De. Let’s just get going, yeah?”

“Yeah. Let’s get going.”

“Ok, guys! Break it up!” Rilei shouts, shoving between the brothers. She doesn’t think that a bridge is the best place to have a fight. Dean loosens his grip and storms away, and Rilei gives Sam a sympathetic smile before stepping away. She’d missed Sam, but it’s obvious that he didn’t want to be with them, so she was ready to find John and let Sam get back to his girlfriend and normal life.

…

“Sam! Don’t you do it! Sam!” Rilei screeches as Sam crashes the car into the house. Her head bounces off of the dashboard, making her dizzy, and if the warm liquid sluicing into her eyes in any indication, she’s got a head wound. “Dammit, Sam,” she hisses, unfolding herself from the front seat. Bracing herself on the hood of the Impala, she watches as Constance is dragged away by the spirits of her children, and a chill shoots down her spine. She shakes her head at Sam, throws her hands in the air, and walks away.

…

Sam’s scream echoes off of the walls, and Rilei is running in his direction before she can think about what she’s doing. Dean breaks the door down and drags Sam out of the apartment, while Rilei stands dumbfounded. She feels like she needs to do something, but she’s not sure what she can do at this point.

Dean’s shout of, “Rilei!” snaps her to reality, and she hurries out of the apartment to huddle outside with Sam and Dean.

…

“Ri, wait, where are you going?” Sam asks worriedly a few hours later.

“I was gonna go grab some coffee for everyone.”

“Alone?”

“Yeah?…”

“You shouldn’t be alone. Just let Dean do it.”

“Sam…”

“Ri, I’ll go. You stay with Sammy,” Dean instructs, squeezing her shoulder and kissing her temple. Rilei isn’t good at the whole comforting thing, so she sits on the edge of the bed uneasily. Sam is silently staring at the carpet beneath his feet.

“I…umm…I’m gonna go shower. I’ll be right in there if you need anything.”

“No!” Sam interjects, scaring Rilei so bad that she plopped back onto the bed. “You…it’s…We shouldn’t be alone right now. Not with that thing in town,” Sam adds lamely, refusing to meet her eyes.

“Ummm…Ok. Sure. Yeah.” Rilei sits back down, glancing at Sam occasionally, though he doesn’t once look up at her.

…

“Dean, he won’t let me out of his sight, and I just…I just need a minute to myself,” Rilei laments two days later. She’s going stir crazy, and Sam never wants to be more than five feet away from her. And she is smothering.  
“Look, Kid, I get it. I do, but as soon as the funeral is over tomorrow, we’re out of here, and I’m sure things will get better.”

“Dean, a funeral isn’t going to solve this.” Dean sighs.

“I know. But maybe killing this son of a bitch will.” Rilei shakes her head. She highly doubts that.

…

Rilei and Sam stand at the back of the cemetery under a willow tree. They’re close enough to hear what’s being said by the minister, but not close enough to be seen. Sam has Rilei’s hand tightly grasped in his. He’s silent and solemn, but he hasn’t cried, and Rilei wishes that he would. Maybe it would help him.

She watches from a few feet away as he places flowers on the fresh grave. She sees Sam bow his head, and she decides to give him a few minutes alone, so she walks away to join Dean in the parking lot. She’s almost made it back to the elder brother when she hears Sam.

“Rilei?!” the call is panicked, and heels be damned, she turns and races back to where he’s standing. He’s wild eyed and obviously panicked when she reaches him. He grabs her roughly by the arms and holds her away from him, almost as if examining her. She can hear Dean’s running footsteps coming upon them.

“Sam?! What happened?!” Rilei demands, holding onto Sam’s forearms.

“You…I couldn’t find you. I thought…” Rilei shakes her head.

“No, I just wanted to give you some time with her.” Dean finally reaches them, and he frowns at the two of them.

“What the hell?” he demands.

“I…” Sam begins.

“I disappeared, and he got worried. It’s my fault,” Rilei finishes.

Dean looks between the two and shakes his head. “We should get going,” he finally says, dropping the subject for now.

…

Sam gets less restrictive of Rilei, but he still prefers her to be with him on hunts, and she shares his bed at night. He has nightmares more often than not, and Rilei is always there to help him calm down afterwards.

…

“So this was your house, huh?” Rilei asks as the pull into the driveway of the Lawrence, Kansas home.

“Yup. This is where we lived,” Dean replies. Sam looks sullen, and Dean looks stressed, but they know that they’re the only hope for the family inside.

…

Rilei freezes in shock seeing Mary Winchester. She recognizes the blonde from a faded picture that Dean keeps in his jacket. Mary smiles gently at her and nods in the direction of the stairs, watching Rilei until she turns and goes down them, turning back one last time before exiting the house, right behind the Winchesters.

…

“Shit! Shit! NO!” Rilei screeches as she dragged down the hallway by the restless spirit on the mad doctor. He straps her to the table and vanishes like he was never there to begin with.

“Sam! Dean!” she shrieks, fruitlessly trying to free herself from the leather straps holding her down. She can hear the brothers yelling at each other down the hall and what sounds like a fight taking place, but she can’t get free of the straps, no matter how hard she pulls on them. “Dean! Help!” Her screams are echoing off of the stone walls, and no one is answering them. And honestly, she is terrified.

Finally, Dean rushes into the room she’s in. He looks like he’s had a rough go of it, but Rilei has never been happier to see him. “Dean! Get me out!” she demands, thrashing against the straps more, though her skin is already opened up and bleeding from pulling so tightly against them.

“Ok. Ok, Kiddo. Hey, calm down. I’m gonna get you out, alright?” He strokes her fiery curls out of her eyes and begins to undo the straps, scooping her close when he gets them off of her.

“Where’s Sammy?” she asks, not spotting the other brother.

“He’s in the other room. He’s fine. Don’t worry.” She nods against Dean’s shoulder as she lets him hug her tightly.

The claw marks to Rilei’s hip burn like a son of a bitch, but they’re lucky. The daeva could have given them much worse than they received. She presses an old tshirt to her wounds and joins the Winchesters. John has returned to them, and he feels like they’re better off apart. The men are fighting, and Rilei can’t stand when that happens, so she steps in.

“Guys, come on, calm down.”

“Rilei, not now. This is family business,” John barks at her. Her heart stops dead. Apparently, she wasn’t family after all. She nods, presses her hand against her hip harder, and limps to the car.

…

Rilei is silent for most of the ride out of town. It seems that Sam and Dean don’t know what to say, and she doesn’t feel like sharing with the class.

…

The next few weeks are rough for Rilei. She wants more than anything to help Sam and Dean get revenge for her their mom, but she also doesn’t feel at home with them anymore. She’s been quiet, keeping her head down and doing her job, but she doesn’t engage with them like she used to.

It’s when they meet up with John again that she decides that she has to stay with Sam and Dean. They need her. They need the backup. She’s there to do a job. They may not want her, but she’s sticking around anyway.

…

“Aww, look at Little Red. All alone in the world. The only daddy she’s known doesn’t even want her,” the demon possessing John taunts. Rilei fights the urge to cry as she tries to maintain control and get all of them out of there alive.

…

She doesn’t see the truck coming anymore than Sam does. But she does feel it. It quite literally feels like a semi hitting her full force. Her shriek pierces the air, and it’s the last thing she hears before everything goes black.

…

“Is she…Will she make it?” Sam asks the doctor.

“I can’t answer that right now. If she makes it through the next 48 hours, her odds are pretty good, but there was severe damage. She had to have a complete hip reconstruction. Her lung was punctured by a rib, and it collapsed and had to be repaired. She has a chest tube. She has head trauma. Her spine has been damaged, so there will likely be nerve damage. And she has multiple lacerations. They had to cut her out of the vehicle. Your brother… he was shielding her with his body, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.” Sam glances at Rilei through the large window to her room. She looks so small in that bed with all the tubes and wires connected to her.

…

John kisses Rilei’s forehead and strokes her hair back. He knows what’s going to happen to him. He knows that it’s his life for Dean’s, but he can’t leave without seeing his girl one last time. Because she is his girl. She always was, since the moment Leah placed her in his arms.

“You listen here, Baby Girl. That stuff that I said to you. That that yellow eyed bastard said to you, it wasn’t true. I’ve always loved you. You are my girl. And I am your daddy. And I’m so sorry that I never made you feel that way. If I could take it all back, I would. But I can’t. I need you to wake up now, Sugar. Dean and Sam need you. I love you so damn much, and I wish I would be here to see the beautiful woman that you’re becoming.” Tears are filling his eyes as he leans down to kiss her forehead one last time before returning to his room.

…

“Baby, please, you’ve gotta wake up,” Dean begs as he sits at Rilei’s bed side. His father was gone, but he’d be damned if he lost Rilei too. “John wasn’t your father. I raised you. You’re mine. I took care of you. I loved you. And dammit, I’m not losing you. So, wake up. I need you, Little girl.”

…

“Hey, Ri. It’s Sam. I miss you. I can’t lose you too. That’s…that’s why I wouldn’t let you out of my sight after Jess. He’d already taken two of the women I loved from me, and I couldn’t let you get taken too. I had nightmares about it being you up there, and waking up and seeing you laying next to me…it was like I could breathe again. So, please. Please come back to me. I need you. I need you to be here, with me, safe.”

…

It’s a week before Rilei wakes up. The first thing she does when coming back to consciousness is squeeze Dean’s hand. His head shoots up from the bed, and he smiles.

“Hey there, Kiddo. How ya feelin?”

“Tired,” she replies, closing her eyes again.

…

The hunters decide to crash at Bobby’s when Rilei is finally released two weeks later. And it’s pretty obvious to the three male hunters that something has changed. She barely talks, she refuses to use the walker the hospital sent home with her, and she sleeps most of the day.

…

Dean studies the back seat of the Impala. It’s soaked with blood. Rilei’s blood. The sight is enough to make him want to vomit. But he mostly feels angry. Angry at the yellow eyed demon. Angry at John for leaving them. And mostly, angry at himself for letting her get hurt. He should have protected her. But he failed. Because he always fails. The crash of the tire iron against the metal of the Impala does little to sate his anger, but there’s only so much whiskey he can drink. And nothing else seems to be helping.

…

Rilei braces herself against the back of the couch, then the dining table, then the counter, as she makes her way to the kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal. The stretch she needs to reach the bowls pulls painfully at her side, which is still healing from her chest tube. Finally, she retrieves the bowl. She pours the Fruity Pebbles in and turns to grab the milk. Her hands shake violently as she tries desperately to get the milk in the bowl. The nerve damage to her spine causes her to have tremors and weakness. Milk sloshes over the side of the bowl, and Rilei is filled with irrational anger. A pair of arms snake around her waist and steady the carton, allowing her to fill the bowl. It’s Sam. It’s always Sam that’s right there. To catch her when she stumbles. To carry her to bed at night. To feed her. To change her bandages. The only thing she refuses to let him do is bathe her, which Dean does.

Sam helps her to the table, and after three failed attempts at getting a full spoon of cereal to her mouth, she sighs, giving up. The spoon clatters to the bowl, slipping from her fingers, and she closes her eyes.

“Here, it’s ok, Ri. You know what the doctors say. This is temporary.”

“Possibly temporary,” she reminds. Sam frowns. He picks up the spoon and feeds her, and Rilei tries to hide the shame she feels having to be fed like a baby.

…

“Alright, Kiddo. Almost done. Want me to wash your hair tonight?” Dean asks as he gives Rilei her daily sponge bath. She shakes her head. “Ok. Well, I’m going to go get Sammy so he can change your bandages.”

Rilei stares up at the spinning blades of the ceiling fan, laying on Bobby’s guest bed in nothing but a towel, waiting for Sam.

…

“These look good, Ri. I’d say about a week or so more, and we won’t need to bandage them up like this anymore.”

“Great,” she mumbles, her eyes closed tightly. She might have to be fed and bathed like an infant, but that doesn’t mean she has to watch it happen. Sam finishes up, and Dean returns to dress her, get her in bed, and give her her night meds.

“Goodnight, Ri. Sleep tight, Kiddo. I’m down the hall if you need me,” Dean say, flicking the lights off, stroking her hair back once more, and leaving the room. Rilei closes her eyes and hopes that when she wakes up, it’ll all have been a dream.

…

“Time to get up, Ri,” Sam greets the next morning. Rilei groans but rolls over so Sam can assist her out of bed and to the bathroom. He then scoops her up and carries her downstairs to the kitchen, where Dean’s made eggs and bacon for everyone. Rilei messily eats a slice of bacon before returning to the couch to sleep.

…

Dean peeks in the living room at Rilei. She’s curled up on her good side. She’s wearing Sam’s flannel plaid pajama bottoms, which are rolled three times at the waist and four at the ankle. Her Led Zepplin tshirt is hanging off of her small frame, further evidence that she has lost weight. Her long, curly, red hair is piled on top of her head in a messy bun, and she’s sporting bags under her eyes. It’s obvious that she’s still not back to her healthy self, and Dean has no idea if or when she ever will be. But it kills him to see her like this. He shakes his head and goes to work on his car, the one thing he can fix.

…

It’s six weeks after Rilei is released from the hospital that she speaks more than a few words at a time. And when she does, it breaks all of their hearts.

“You should go. I know there are cases. I’ll stay here until I can find somewhere to crash for a while.”

“What are you talking about? We’re not leaving you,” Dean says, brows furrowed.

“Look, Dean. We both know that I’m never going to be able to hunt with you again. I can barely wipe my own ass, and Sam still has to feed me nine times out of ten. There’s no need in you guys waiting around on me for the rest of your lives.”

“You’re getting better!” Sam protests. Rilei shakes her head.

“Not fast enough. I’m never going to be a reliable hunter. Just go.”

“Rilei June Parker, you are one of us! We’re not leaving you! When, and only when you’re able to come with us, we’ll go back out. Not until then. End of discussion.”

…

Slowly, Rilei regained at least a semblance of normalcy. She had a limp, and her hands sometimes shook when she was holding a fork. But her aim never wavered. She was one of the best damn hunters out there, and just like they always had, the Winchesters walked beside her all the way.


	2. Ringo Starr & Swimming Holes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So much fluff. Mostly filler. Just a quick check in with the Winchester-Parker crew.

Dean enters Bobby’s kitchen and sets the groceries on the counter. He snags a beer and makes his way to the office. He assumes that Rilei and Sam are still on research duty. Bobby was on a hunt, and since Rilei wasn’t quite in fighting shape yet, the Winchesters volunteered to stay behind and research to give Bobby the best chance and ganking the son of a bitch.  
“Dammit, Sam! I can do it myself! I don’t need help!” Rilei exclaims as Dean makes his way silently through the house. “Sam!”  
“Oww! Rilei! What was that for?! I was only trying to help!” Dean arrives at the open doorway just in time to see Rilei lash out and hit Sam in the calf with her cane, which she’d named Ringo Starr while high on pain meds after a particularly rough day at physical therapy.  
Dean barks a laugh and leans against the door jamb.  
“I told you I can get up by myself. I’m not a baby!” Rilei gripes as she heaves herself heavily from the worn leather office chair.  
“I didn’t say you were a baby, Rilei, I was just trying to help!” an exasperated Sam explains.  
“I’m not THAT crippled.” She makes her way unsteadily across the room to the long wooden table where she’s laid books out in some order that probably only makes sense to her.  
Sam sighs, throws his hands up, and stomps away, making Dean chuckle again. “He’s just trying to take care of you, you know?” the eldest Winchester states. At Rilei’s glare and the cane pointed in his direction, Dean leaves.  
…  
Most of the time, Rilei can get around fine without her cane. Sure, she has a hell of a limp, but she can do it. But on days when the air is cold and the rain blows in sheets against the windows, those days she needs the structure that the cane gives her. Today is one of those days. Her whole body aches as she sits in Bobby’s old chair looking for lore on ogres, of all things. Rilei knows she’s lucky to not be in a wheelchair… Or dead. And she’s thankful. She really is. But damn, it would be nice to feel like she was 19, not 90. But that’s life. At least for a Winchester…Parker…Whatever.  
…  
“Dean, I can ride in the car. Provide backup. Do research. Be useful. C’mon, man. I’ve got to get out of this house. Please,” Rilei demands. Dean stares at her. Levelling up the situation. There was a hunt in Waco. Bobby thought it was a shifter case. But he was tied up in Topeka with some vampires. And the situation was getting desperate. The Winchesters needed to go. But Dean was reluctant. He hadn’t let Rilei out of his sight since the yellow eyed demon incident, and he wasn’t keen to now. But he knew when he was defeated. Sighing, he speaks.  
“Fine. But you stay with Sam at all times. And if things start getting hairy, you get in Baby and get the hell outta dodge. Leave my ass. Capiche?”  
“Roger that, Captain,” Rilei replies with a salute and a smile. Dean rolls his eyes and walks away. That kid is gonna be the death of him yet.  
…  
Sam finds himself staring at Rilei a lot. He’s always loved her, of course, but it felt different now. When he’d joined her and Dean on the road again, he’d noticed how being close to her made him feel better. How the smell of her cherry scented hair made him feel at peace. And how those little smiles she gave him seemed to be what got him through the day. And one day, he woke up and realized. Maybe Rilei was more than just a sister to him. She was family, sure, but maybe the love he had for her was different. And then the yellow eyed demon happened, and everything kind of went to hell. Everything felt different now. The tender little touches she used to give him to soothe him when he had a nightmare or even just when she sensed his anxiety rising, those didn’t come anymore. She didn’t seem infatuated with him like she did when they picked him up that night. He could tell she still cared for him. But he could also tell that she was holding herself back. So, he was holding himself back. Nonetheless, having her sandwiched between him and Dean puts him on edge in a good way.  
…  
“Ri, I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Sam complains as Rilei hops out of the car.  
“You’re right, Sam. It’s a great idea. Look, it’s hot as balls out here. And that lake looks mighty tempting, don’t it?” Sam looks at the lake in the distance and back at Rilei. It is hot. Nearly 108◦.  
“But we don’t even have suits,” he states logically.  
Rilei sighs. “Oh sweet, sweet Sam. That’s why God created underwear.” She proceeds to shuck her Journey tank and cut off denim shorts. Once down to her black lace bra and simple turquoise cotton panties, she throws him a wink and makes her way to the lake.  
Sam can’t help but stare. Her beautiful pearlescent skin is now marred with deep, rosy scars. The twin colt revolvers framing her hips and the rose resting delicately under her left breast only add to her overall beauty. Damn, how has Sam never noticed how much of a beautiful woman his little Rilei had become?  
Rilei smiles and splashes water in Sam’s direction. “Come on, Dork. This water feels amazing!” She gets a patented Sammy smile in return as he shucks off his shirt.  
…  
Dean finds his brother and sister laying in the soft grass on the bank of the lake. He’s a little pissed that he had to walk all the way from town after killing the shifter, but most of that fades away when he notices how happy the younger two Winchesters are.  
Rilei is wearing his Raybans, which he rolls his eyes at, and is laying with her head on Sam’s shoulder. She’s laughing at something, and the sound of it bounces through the air joyfully. And Sam. Well, Sam looks at peace. He looks content. And that’s a look Dean hasn’t seen on his little brother’s face in a long time. And Dean is just happy to be part of it.  
“Hey, Kid! Those are my shades!” he yells, charging at the youngest’s with a huge grin on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys! I know it's been a while. Sorry about that. Essential employee, here. Hopefully I'll get more up soon. Hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
